Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As restaurants look for new employees to help them come back from the pandemic, there are a couple of issues: where can they find people and how to train them.
Help is here in the form of a ten day program now underway at SUNY Buffalo State to teach people and get them hired into hospitality right away.
Rise Up is a ten day boot camp program aimed at solving a Catch-22 for restaurant owners. "You need the staff to reopen, but current restaurant workers are working so much that it's difficult to find time to recruit people," says Kristin Fields of SUNY Buffalo State Continuing Professional Studies in launching the program.
Fields says during the program, participants will learn hard and soft skills. "They're learning knife skills and getting an orientation to a wide variety of kitchen equipment. They are also learning hosting and serving," says Fields.
"For the first week, participants are focused on practicing and learning core skills, so they'll be in our kitchen labs, learning how to cook soups and sauces. They are learning to navigate a professional kitchen."
Fields says the participants will transition into operating the campus social club called Campus House during the second week. "They'll be everything they learned the first week into practice for the second week," notes Fields.
Fields says this is a dynamic, holistic training experience that will allow restaurant owners to hire them without having to cover with them. "They'll take part in character building exercises that will ensure those new staff members will be able to provide the service restaurateurs are looking for," says Fields. Those participants will also be working on interview skills and resume creation. "All those restaurant partners will come in on the last day and interview the participants, and they could leave with new employees ready to go right in their restaurants,' adds Fields. She says the ratio of restaurant partners to participants is 1:1.
A program is already in progress, but Fields says another session is scheduled for fall.
